


Lady in Waiting

by Redrikki



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 06:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10714056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: Rey's spent so much of her life waiting it's hard to know when to stop. Luckily, Poe's there to give her the push she needs.





	Lady in Waiting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sosobriquet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sosobriquet/gifts).



> Thanks to [irhinoceri](http://archiveofourown.org/users/irhinoceri/pseuds/irhinoceri) for her help with the beta reading.

The staff was cutting Finn out of his clothes by the time Rey found the med bay. The grey medical droid sliced along the seams while the human doctor peeled off the resulting rags. The exposed wound on Finn’s shoulder was both better and worse than Rey had imagined. It wasn’t bleeding or anything, but it shown an angry red against the dark brown of his skin and smelled strongly of overcooked meat. Rey swallowed hard and looked away as the doctor gently rolled Finn onto his side to examine the slash across his back.

Rey’s gaze landed on Finn’s jacket, crumpled like a dead thing in a heap on the floor. It had been spared the same fate as his shirt and was largely intact. There was still the small burn on the shoulder and the larger, more horrifying one which bisected the back, but Rey could fix that. She darted forward and snatched it up. 

Unfortunately, someone else had the same idea. No sooner had Rey gotten her hands on the collar than somebody grabbed a sleeve. Rey glared up at her competition. He was a human male, maybe ten or so years older than her with dark, sweat-soaked curls and light brown skin. A pilot too, judging by his bright orange flight suit. Rey felt like she should know him though she couldn’t say how or why.

Disconcerted by the feeling, Rey narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip. “Scavenge from the dead, but this is _Finn’s_ ,” she said and yanked. 

The man let go so fast Rey overbalanced and stumbled backwards, crashing into a tool-laden cart. Medical instruments clattered to the floor, drawing the doctor’s attention.

“Are you hurt?” She frowned first at Rey, then the man, and back again.

They both shook their heads. Rey’s back was one massive bruise from where Ren had thrown her into the tree, but nothing was broken or bleeding…or burnt. 

“Good.” She jerked her head toward the door. “Now get out so I can help your friend in peace.”

The man reached for Rey’s arm, but she shook him off and saw herself out. In the hallway, she squared her shoulders and braced for the fight. She didn’t want to hurt him, not like she’d wanted to hurt Ren, but she would if it meant Finn would wake up and wear his jacket again.

“You must be Rey,” he said with a disarming smile. “I’m Poe.” He offered his hand, but didn’t seem bothered when Rey didn’t take it. “Thanks for looking after BB-8.” 

It took a moment for his words to register. “Poe? _Poe Dameron_?” BB-8’s kind-brave-master Poe? The-best pilot-in-the-Resistance Poe? The original owner of Finn’s jacket? That Poe? “Finn said you were dead.”

Poe just shrugged. “The way we landed I thought _he_ was dead. Good thing we were both wrong.” He glanced back at the closed med bay door with a furrowed brow. Then he sighed and the tension melted from his face. “We can’t do any good here. Let’s say we grab a bite. My treat,” he added with another one of those easy smiles. 

Rey’s stomach rumbled at the mere mention of food, but she hesitated, looking back toward the med bay. It felt like years since those few mouthfuls she’d snatched at Maz’s, but what if? What if Finn woke up and she wasn’t there? What if the medical equipment broke and she wasn’t there to fix it? What if he _died_? 

“Rey?” 

She turned back toward Poe’s patient, smiling face and sighed. He was right. There was nothing they could do here. Standing blocking the hallway wouldn’t make Finn wake up any faster than wearing her hair the same way for ten years had made her parents come back. Poe hadn’t said anything about claiming Finn’s jacket, so Rey shrugged it on and let him lead the way.

***

Poe was ridiculously friendly, and not just with Rey. They’d barely sat down with their food trays when what seemed like half the planet stopped by. They crowed about their victory. They wept over missing friends. They even asked about Finn. More people came in five minutes than passed through Niima in five months and somehow Poe knew all their names. Some of them stared at her curiously, but Rey just kept her head down and made the most of the free food. 

It was easily the best thing she had ever eaten. Like the prepared meals she’d found on her Ghtroc 690, it was meat and vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce, but this was served over some sort of cooked grain. It was all so fresh the vegetables crunched. Rey devoured it like a starving gnaw-jaw. She was already eating her last forkful by the time Poe had finished socializing long enough to take his first bite.

His eyes widened as she lifted the plate to lap up the last of the wonderful sauce. “Wow. I guess you _really_ like sweet and sour shaak.”

“Ah uh,” Rey grunted. It was amazing and the only complaint against it she could make was that it was too moist and squishy to be stuffed in a pocket for later. If only she had a rigid container. Who knew when she’d be able to have something like this again?

Poe shook his head with a rueful laugh. “Well, the kitchen will be glad to know at least one person’ll be happy eating it every other week.” He wrinkled his nose and dug in like a man rushing through an unpleasant chore.

What sort of worlds had Poe lived on that he could turn his nose up at fresh vegetables and real, actual meat? His attitude probably wouldn’t have hurt so much if Rey hadn’t known such worlds existed. She had though. She’d flown simulations of them and lived off their scraps. She had yearned for them, but never reached. It hurt to know she could have eaten like this ages ago if she’d had the courage to fly away with Devi and Strunk.

“You planning on sticking around?” Poe asked.

Rey shrugged. She was stuck here at least until Finn healed, but beyond that? She thought longingly of her island. Too bad it was only a dream.

“You’re from Jakku, right?” Poe pushed his plate away and lounged back in his chair. “I was stuck there for just one day.” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine you want to go back there.”

“I do or I _did_. Before Starkiller, I mean.”

Poe quirked an eyebrow and Rey flushed. He must think she was mad. Why else would anyone want to go back to sand and starvation once they’d gotten away? “My family. They left me there when I was a little girl. I thought…I thought if I just waited long enough, they’d come back.”

Poe’s easy smile slipped from his lips. “They never came back, did they?” he asked quietly.

“No, I—” Tears gathered in Rey’s eyes. She snuffled and dashed them away. “I knew, deep down, that they wouldn’t but…” She shrugged. “It was easier to stay and pretend. I didn’t have to live, just wait.”

“So what now?”

Rey stroked the sleeves of Finn’s jacket. She had never felt so loved as she had wrapped in Finn’s embrace. “I’m going to fix Finn’s jacket. I’m going to stay until he’s better.” She had been waiting her whole life for someone to come back for her. She wasn’t about to leave him.

“And then what?”

“I—” And then what? Had Rey _ever_ thought about that before? She used to tell herself stories where her family came back, but they always ended there. Finn would wake up and then they would do….something. 

_The island, the island,_ the Force seemed to whisper. _Go soon, go now_.

“I don’t know,” Rey lied and pushed the Force away. 

****

BB-8’s map slotted into place, completing the galaxy. It filled the gloomy command center with the light of more stars than Rey had ever dreamed. They sang like a calling.

Poe wandered through the constellations, tracing the glowing path that led to Skywalker. He tapped the planet at the end of the line with a slow smile. “General” —he turned to face her— “I can have the Black Squadron there in an hour.”

General Organa raised an eyebrow and favored him with a sardonic smile. “And bring Luke home on your lap?” She shook her head. “How about something a little roomier than an X-wing?”

“I can pick Luke up with the _Falcon,_ ” Chewie offered. 

Poe nodded crisply. “And I’ll go with him.”

Rey’s stomach sank. Chewie and Poe were the only conscious people she knew on this base. They couldn’t just _abandon_ her.

The general pursed her lips, considering, then shook her head. “It won’t work. Finding Luke was the easy part. We need something, some _one_ to lure him back here.” 

The weight of her gaze fell on Rey and suddenly it was hard to breathe. The stars’ song swelled to a crescendo as the scent of the sea filled the air. The Force was like a push at her back. _Go, go,_ it whispered. Rey shook her head to clear it.

“Rey” —the general took her hands— “you are strong in the Force. You have his lightsaber. It has to be you.” Her eyes were like quicksand, sucking Rey in until her words seemed reasonable. She _could_ find Skywalker where everyone else had failed. She would just have to leave Finn to do it.

“No!” Rey wrenched her hands from the general’s grasp. “Finn’s hurt. He _needs_ me.” She backed away. “I haven’t even started fixing his jacket.” Hands reached for her, the stars reached for her, but Rey shook them off and ran.

*****

She wasn’t hiding, Rey told herself. She was working. It just so happened that the med bay was a quiet, perfect place to do both. Rey sat hunched in a chair by Finn’s bed, struggling to repair his jacket. The leather that had felt so supple and soft pressed against her face as they hugged was proving surprisingly tough. It took real effort to force the needle through. It would probably be easier if she had an awl or something to pre-punch her holes. As it was, her fingers ached. 

“The general wanted to send me,” Rey recounted as she worked. Talking to an unconscious man felt a bit like yelling at the desert, but the doctor said it would help. All the more reason for Rey to stay. Who else was going to come and talk to Finn? “Skywalker’s _her_ brother,” she grumbled, stabbing with the needle and yanking it through the resulting hole. “ _She_ should be the one to go and—”

The whoosh of the med bay door cut her off mid rant. Rey looked up from her work to glare at whoever had found her. Poe. The general must have sent him to talk her into the mission. Well, it wouldn’t work. Rey braced her shoulders and raised her chin. The only way she was leaving was if Poe dragged her out of her chair.

Rey’s stomach clenched as Poe strolled across the room. Her tension only mounted as he claimed the chair on the far side of Finn’s bed and proceeded to ignore her. “Hey buddy,” he said quietly, taking Finn’s hand, “you having a good nap?”

Finn, of course, remained silent except for the faint sound of his breath and the steady beep of the heart monitor. His doctor was keeping him in a medically induced coma to keep him from moving until his back was healed. He’d only be allowed to wake once the bacta-jell bed had worked its magic. Rey tried to tell herself that watching him sleep was better than watching him suffer, but the unnatural stillness of his normally expressive face was all wrong.

The three of them sat their in increasingly uncomfortable silence as Poe stared at the monitors and squeezed Finn’s hand. Any moment now he would start in on her. Her muscles quivered with anticipation. Any minute. “Well?” Rey finally demanded, unable to take it any more.

“That’d be easier if you used a punch,” Poe said mildly, nodding at Rey’s sewing project. 

Like her cramped and aching fingers hadn't already told her that. Rey ground her teeth in frustration. “Why are you here?”

Poe crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Finn’s my friend too, you know,” he said. “In fact, he was my friend first,” he added with a smirk.

Rey colored and looked away. Finder’s rights on a person was a pretty dubious claim, but she got what Poe was saying. He had just as much right to Finn’s bedside as she did. She cleared her throat awkwardly, searching for something to say to reset the conversation. “Finn said he helped you escape?”

Poe smiled fondly. “I’ll never forget the first time I saw his face.” The smile slipped from his lips and, for a heartbeat, he looked almost haunted. “I’d been captured, tortured, had my memories just” —he ground his fist against his temple— “ripped out of my head. I’d blown my mission, given Ren _everything_ , and I thought they were going to kill me. Then this guy showed up.” Poe’s grin reappeared like the sun bursting out from behind a cloud. “‘This is a rescue,’ he said. I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life.”

That certainly sounded like Finn. Rey smiled faintly, remembering. She had more or less rescued herself back on Starkiller, but the sight of Finn, the feel of his arms around her? That was the moment she knew she’d be alright. “Then you understand why I can’t leave him.”

“Do I?” Poe leaned forward, the intensity of his gaze pinning Rey to her seat. “During the months we looked for Skywalker, my team and I went up against a monster, got trapped in a high-security prison filled with dangerous prisoners, and almost died more times than I can count.” From anyone else it would be a litany of horror, but Poe made it sound like the time of his life. “I wouldn’t trade a second of it, but you’re what? Giving it up to sit here and _sew_?” 

A surge of hot anger took Rey’s breath away. Her fists clenched tight around the jacket. “You know it’s not like that.” The mission _might_ succeed. The island _might_ be real. Finn and his love for her were the only sure thing in her life. She wasn’t going to give that up just for the possibility of an adventure.

“You could be a Jedi, Rey, but instead you’re just” —he threw up his hands— “doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Waiting.” He reached out and squeezed her hand. “Please, don’t make Finn your next excuse not to live your life.”

****

Rey sat and watched the gentle rise and fall of Finn’s chest. She hadn’t even left yet and she missed him with an intensity that made her own chest ache. “We’ll see each other again.” It was a promise to herself as much as to him. “I believe that.” She laid a kiss on his forehead. “Thank you, my friend.”

They would see each other again. With each step she took away from his bed, she reminded herself of that. They would find their way back to each other. They had done it before; they would do it again. Finn would wake up. Rey would come home. For now though, Rey was done waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> I drew on some backstory details from _Before the Awakening_ and the Poe comic books. I highly recommend you check them if you haven't already.


End file.
